Since Volvo announced it would build a new manufacturing plant in the Charleston metro area, Savannah area residents have been debating the reasons.
We don’t have precise answers from the automaker about the selection of South Carolina over Georgia for the plum new facility, but it seems to me that much of the social media discussion has missed the mark.
Sure, it’s possible that Volvo executives considered quality-of-life issues like crime and education, but the Savannah and Charleston metro areas are not that different in those areas.
According to statistics compiled by Governing magazine, only 28.4 percent of Savannah metro area residents have a bachelor’s degree or higher. The Charleston metro area is only slightly better, with 29.8 percent.
According to 2012 data compiled by the FBI, the Charleston metro area had a rate of 422.2 violent crimes per 100,000 inhabitants. The Savannah metro area rate of 327.5 was markedly lower.
And it’s hard to buy the Facebook refrain that governance of the city of Savannah impacted Volvo’s decision. Savannah only has about one-third of the total population of the metro area, and Volvo was considering a site in Bryan County.
Gulfstream’s success suggests that the Savannah area is a perfectly fine place for a major international manufacturer.
But I’m not suggesting that Volvo should have chosen Savannah over Charleston. I’m just suggesting that we don’t have to stretch quite so far to find logical reasons for Volvo’s decision.
On May 11, The Post and Courier in Charleston published “Volvo cites worker training, Port of Charleston in decision to locate in S.C.”
According to that article, South Carolina’s ReadySC program “recruits workers and provides site-specific training through Trident Technical College and other schools. The program tailors its training based on the skills each company’s executives say they need.”
The ReadySC program likely also played a role in Daimler AG’s decision to expand in North Charleston. And it certainly couldn’t have hurt negotiations with Volvo that South Carolina Commerce Secretary Bobby Hitt is a former executive at BMW, which has a plant outside Greenville.
The Post and Courier coverage does not emphasize another workforce advantage that the Charleston metro area has over the Savannah metro area.
Charleston simply has a much bigger pool of potential employees.
Over the years, I’ve found that many readers just don’t understand the Charleston metropolitan statistical area has a lot more people than the Savannah metropolitan statistical area.
The Charleston MSA has about 700,000 residents; the Savannah MSA has fewer than 400,000.
And consider that the site of the new plant — Ridgeville, S.C. — is only 85 miles from downtown Columbia, S.C. The Columbia MSA has more than 900,000 residents.
If you drive 85 miles inland from the Bryan County site that Volvo rejected, you’re getting close to Dublin.
The larger labor force in metro Charleston will obviously make it easier for the new Volvo plant to find its initial 2,000 employees.
Also, it seems South Carolina offered a sweeter package of incentives than Georgia did.
According to The Post and Courier, South Carolina’s “incentives package will cost at least $51,000 per job.” That’s assuming full employment of 4,000 in 2030. If the plant doesn’t expand, the package could end up costing the state closer to $100,000 per job.
Georgia offered incentives too, but it sounds like we didn’t match South Carolina’s offer.
Is it right for states to offer private companies such rich incentives? There have to be limits somewhere.
And what of the port and other infrastructure?
Both metro areas offer access to major ports, but it’s likely that, in a decade or so, Charleston harbor will be slightly deeper than the Savannah harbor.
In the 2015 legislative session, Georgia finally identified more money for transportation infrastructure, but the extra $1 billion per year will mostly go to deferred maintenance and to projects in metro Atlanta.
I think it’s an open question whether we have both the will and the resources to make the upgrades to I-16 and other roads that a 4,000-employee automobile plant in Bryan County would require.
And none of this is to say that we shouldn’t be pursuing large manufacturers.
We should obviously be trying to lure high-paying jobs, but the scale of the Savannah metro area might turn out to be better suited to a constellation of smaller companies than to individual major employers.
I’ll also add that I’m used to all sorts of blowback whenever I am not back slappingly enthusiastic about every possible form of commercial development. I think that sort of group think has sometimes clouded local objectivity about the Savannah area’s assets and limitations.
City Talk appears every Tuesday and Sunday. Bill Dawers can be reached via billdawers@comcast.net. Send mail to 10 East 32nd St., Savannah, Ga. 31401.